Method and system for sideband communication architecture for supporting manageability over wireless lan (wlan)

ABSTRACT

A management controller in a network device may support performing management operations based on management traffic communicated wirelessly via a wireless network controller of the network devices. The management controller may perform the management operations and/or to support wireless communication of the management traffic independent of operations of the network device. The management controller may be integrated into a network controller in the network device. The management traffic may comprise out-of-band (OOB) management related traffic. A direct interface may be established between the management controller and the wireless network controller, to support direct sideband communication between the management controller and the wireless network controller. The sideband interface may incorporate Network Controller Sideband Interface (NC-SI) and/or Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO) interface. The management controller may control operations of the wireless network controller, by utilizing an embedded wireless controller driver.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This patent application makes reference to, claims priority to andclaims benefit from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/349,016(Attorney Docket No. 23476US01) which was filed on May 27, 2010.

The above stated application is hereby incorporated herein by referencein its entirety.

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

[Not Applicable].

MICROFICHE/COPYRIGHT REFERENCE

[Not Applicable].

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the invention relate to networking. Morespecifically, certain embodiments of the invention relate to a methodand system for sideband communication architecture for supportingmanageability over wireless LAN (WLAN).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Network devices may communicate using wireless and/or wired connection,and be utilized to receive inputs, store and process data, and provideoutputs for various applications. Network devices may comprise, forexample, personal computers (PCs), laptops, servers, workstations, smartphones or other similar handheld mobile devices. A network device maycomprise a network interface controller (NIC), which may be coupledinternally (i.e. integrated into) or externally to the computer system.The NIC may be utilized in network access operations, to enable sendingand/or receiving data, in the form of network packets, via wired and/orwireless connections.

Information Technology (IT) management may require performing remotemanagement operations of remote systems to perform inventory and/or todetermine whether remote systems are up-to-date. For example, managementdevices and/or consoles may perform such operations as discoveringand/or navigating management resources in a network, manipulating and/oradministrating management resources, requesting and/or controllingsubscribing and/or unsubscribing operations, and executing and/orspecific management methods and/or procedures. Management devices and/orconsoles may communicate with devices in a network to ensureavailability of remote systems, to validate that systems may beup-to-date, and/or to perform any security patch updates that may benecessary.

Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditionalapproaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, throughcomparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention asset forth in the remainder of the present application with reference tothe drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system and/or method is provided for sideband communicationarchitecture for supporting manageability over wireless LAN (WLAN),substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at leastone of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

These and other advantages, aspects and novel features of the presentinvention, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof, willbe more fully understood from the following description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary communicationsystem for supporting management operations, which may be utilized inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary network device thatsupports use of wireless communication during out-of-band (OOB)management, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating exemplary handling of managementtraffic in a network device, which supports sideband communicationsbetween a management controller and a wireless network controller, whena host environment in the network device is available, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating exemplary handling of managementtraffic in a network device, which supports sideband communicationsbetween a management controller and a wireless network controller, whena host environment in the network device is unavailable, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture for anetwork device that comprises a dedicated management controller, andwhich supports sideband communications between the management controllerand wireless network controller, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 5A is a flow chart that illustrates exemplary steps correspondingto the receive path during host-assisted handling of management trafficin a network device that incorporates sideband communication between awireless controller and a management controller, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5B is a flow chart that illustrates exemplary steps correspondingto the receive path during host-independent handling of managementtraffic in a network device that incorporates sideband communicationbetween wireless controller and management controller, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5C is a flow chart that illustrates exemplary steps correspondingto the transmit path during host-assisted handling of management trafficin a network device that incorporates sideband communication betweenwireless controller and management controller, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5D is a flow chart that illustrates exemplary steps correspondingto the transmit path during host-independent handling of managementtraffic in a network device that incorporates sideband communicationbetween wireless controller and management controller, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and systemfor sideband communication architecture for supporting manageabilityover wireless LAN (WLAN). In various embodiments of the invention, amanagement controller in a network device may handle management trafficcommunicated wirelessly via a wireless network controller of the networkdevices, and may perform and/or support management operations based onthe handled wireless management traffic. The management controller maybe operable to perform the management operations and/or to supportwireless communication of the management traffic independent ofoperations of the network device. The management controller may beintegrated into a network controller in the network device. Themanagement traffic may comprise out-of-band (OOB) management relatedtraffic. A direct interface may be established between the managementcontroller and the wireless network controller, to support directsideband communication between the management controller and thewireless network controller. In this regard, at least a portion of thewireless management traffic may be communicated between the managementcontroller and the wireless network controller via the sidebandinterface. The sideband interface may incorporate and/or be based onNetwork Controller Sideband Interface (NC-SI) and/or the Secure DigitalInput Output (SDIO) interface.

The wireless traffic communicated via the wireless network controllermay be routed via a host subsystem in the network device when the hostsubsystem is available, wherein the routing may comprise filteringinbound packets to determine if they comprise management traffic, andforwarding inbound management traffic received via the wireless networkcontroller back to the wireless network controller for communication tothe management controller. Outbound traffic may be forwarded to the hostsubsystem from the wireless network controller, for additionalnetworking related processing before being forwarded back to thewireless network controller, which may then communicated the outboundtraffic wirelessly via one or more wireless connections, such as WLANbased connections. The management controller may configure the wirelessnetwork controller to provide direct pass-through routing ofcommunicated network traffic to and/or from the management controller,via the sideband interface, when the host subsystem in the networkdevice is not available. The management controller may controloperations of the wireless network controller. In this regard, themanagement controller may comprise an embedded wireless controllerdriver for driving and/or controlling operations of the wireless networkcontroller, such as when the host subsystem is not available.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary communicationsystem for supporting management operations, which may be utilized inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1,there is shown a network device 100 and a management device 110, whichmay communicate via a network link 120. Also shown in FIG. 1 areprocessors 102 and 112, memories 104 and 114, a management service 106,a remote management agent 116, and a management connection 122.

The processor 102 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces,and/or code for control and/or manage operations of the network device100, and/or performing tasks and/or applications therein, which maycomprise management related operations. In this regard, the processor102 may be operable to configure and/or control operations of variouscomponents and/or subsystems of the network device 102, by generating,for example, control signals. The processor 102 may also control datatransfers within the network device 100. The invention may not belimited to a specific processor, but may comprise for example, a generalpurpose processor (CPU), a specialized processor, or any combination ofsuitable hardware, firmware, software and/or code. The processor 112 maybe similar to the processor 102, and may be operable to performsubstantially similar functions in the management device 110.

Each of the memories 104 and 114 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry,interfaces, and/or code that may enable permanent and/or non-permanentstorage and fetch of data and/or code, such as during management relatedoperations for example. In this regard, each of the memories 104 and 114may comprise different memory technologies, including, for example,read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), Flash memory, and/orany combinations thereof.

The management device 110 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry,interfaces, and/or code for receiving, transmitting, and/or processingof network traffic, to facilitate network access operations inconjunction with applications or tasks performed in the managementdevice 110 and/or based on user interactions with the management device110. The management device 110 may comprise the processor 112 and thememory 114 for example. In an exemplary aspect of the invention, themanagement device 110 may be operable to support and/or participate inmanagement operations, based on one or more management standards and/orprotocols. In this regard, the management device 110 may be utilized by,for example, Information Technology (IT) operators and/or networkadministrators to manage and/or control a plurality of network devices,such as the network device 100 for example. Exemplary managementoperations may comprise discovering and/or navigating resources in amanaged network, manipulating and/or administrating managed resources,ensuring availability of remote systems and/or devices, validating thatthe systems and/or devices (or applications therein) may be up-to-date,requesting and/or controlling subscribing and/or unsubscribingoperations, performing security patch updates. Accordingly, themanagement device 110 may perform management operations, via the remotemanagement agent 116 for example, wherein the management device 110 mayutilize a network interface to exchange management related messagesand/or information with the network 100 via the management connection122, which may be established over network link 120.

In an exemplary aspect of the invention, the management device 110 maycomprise a dedicated management component, such as the remote managementagent 116 for example, to perform management operations based on one ormore management standards and/or protocols. In this regard, the remotemanagement agent 116 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces,and/or code for performing management operations based on supportedmanagement standards and/or protocols. Exemplary management standardsand/or protocols may comprise Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF)based Web Service Management (WS-Management) and/or Alert StandardFormat (ASF) related protocols. The remote management agent 116 maycomprise a logical and/or software entity that may be integrated, forexample, within an OS running in the management device 110, using theprocessor 112 and/or the memory 114 for example. The remote managementagent 116 may also comprise logical, software, and/or hardware basedcomponent that may be integrated within a network interface controller(NIC) which may be integrated into the management device 110 forenabling network communications. The remote management agent 116 mayalso comprise dedicated management sub-system within the managementdevice 110, such as a management controller for example.

The network device 100 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry,interfaces, and/or code for receiving, transmitting, and/or processingof network traffic, to facilitate network access operations inconjunction with applications or tasks performed in the network device100 and/or based on user interactions with the network device 100. Thenetwork device 100 may comprise the processor 102 and the memory 104 forexample. In this regard, the network device 100 may comprise a personalcomputer (PC), a server, a mainframe, a network router or switch, anetwork printer, and/or a dedicated network storage device. In anexemplary aspect of the invention, the network device 100 may beoperable to support and/or participate in management operations, inconjunction with one or more management devices, such as the managementdevice 110 for example. In this regard, the network device 100 maysupport and/or provide various management services and/or functions, viathe management service 106 for example, wherein the management device110 may utilize a network interface to exchange management relatedmessages and/or information with management device 100 via themanagement connection 122 for example.

In an exemplary aspect of the invention, the network device 100 maycomprise a dedicated management component, such as the managementservice 106 for example, to perform and/or support management operationsbased on one or more supported management standards and/or protocols. Inthis regard, the management service 106 may comprise suitable logic,circuitry, interfaces, and/or code for performing management operationsbased on supported management standards and/or protocols, such asWS-Management and/or ASF related protocols related protocols forexample. The management service 106 may comprise a logical and/orsoftware entity that may be integrated, for example, within an OSrunning in the network device 100, using the processor 102 and/or thememory 104 for example. The management service 106 may also compriselogical, software, and/or hardware based component that may beintegrated within a network interface controller (NIC), which may beintegrated into the network device 100 to enable network communications.The management service 106 may also comprise dedicated managementsub-system within the network device 100, such as a managementcontroller for example.

The network link 120 may comprise a medium, and/or corresponding networkinterfaces within the management device 110 and the network device 100,for exchanging data and/or messages between the management device 110and the network device 100. The network link 120 may comprise, forexample, an Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) link, which may enable the managementdevice 110 and/or the network device 100 to exchange data and/ormessages via Ethernet packets transmitted and/or received via one ormore wired and/or wireless connections. In an exemplary aspect of theinvention, messages and/or data pertaining to specific operations, suchas management operation, may be exchanged using network packetscommunicated via the network link 120. For example, during managementoperations, the network link 120 may be utilized by the managementdevice 110 and network device 100 to establish management connection122, to enable exchanging WS-Management and/or ASF protocol basedmessages.

In operation, the network device 100 and the management device 110 maycommunicate via the network link 104. In this regard, the network device100 and the management device 110 may exchange messages and/or datapertaining to applications and/or tasks which may be performedcollaboratively by the devices. For example, the network device 100 andthe management device 110 may exchange messages and/or data pertainingto management operations, performed in the context of managing networkdevice 100 via the management device 110. In this regard, the managementdevice 110 may be utilized, by a network administrator for example, tomanage a plurality of network devices, such as the network device 100.For example, the management device 110 may utilize the managementconnection 122 to communicate with the network device 100, to perform,request, and/or trigger various management operations, functions, and/orservices in the network device 100. In this regard, the managementconnection 122 may support exchanging management related messages basedon one or more standards-based management protocols, to enableperforming management operations between the management device 110 andthe network device 100. For example, the remote management agent 116and/or the management service 106 may support use of ASF and/orWS-management based messages, transmitted and/or received via themanagement connection 122, within Ethernet packets for example, duringmanagement operations between the management device 110 and the networkdevice 100. The Alert Standard Format (ASF) protocol may be used infirst generation out-of-band (OOB) management systems. In this regard,the ASF functionality may be implemented using User Datagram Protocol(UDP) based stack, to facilitate communication between managementdevices and network devices. Accordingly, devices supporting and/orusing ASF functionality and/or interfaces may perform and/or participatein management operations using ASF messages, which may be transportedvia UDP based connections.

The Web Service Management (WS-Management) protocol has been developedas a next generation management protocol. The WS-Management protocol isbased on the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), which utilizes XMLbased messaging and HTTP(S) sessions, and may utilize TCP basedtransport connectivity for communications between management devices andnetwork devices. Use of SOAP over HTTP(S) may require supportingHTTP/TLS/TCP stack implementation in the management/network devices,which may, however, ensure improved security, reliability, andOS-independent operations. Furthermore, the DMTF has defined amanagement data model called Common Information Model (CIM), which maybe utilized in conjunction with the WS-Management protocol duringmanagement operations. The CIM based data model may provide objectoriented representation of management data, managed resources, and/ormanagement relationships, which may be accessed and/or configured usingWS-Management protocol based messaging. Accordingly, devices supportingand/or using WS-Management, and/or CIM based functionality and/orinterfaces, may perform and/or participate in out-of-band (OOB)management operations using WS-Management based messaging, which may betransported via TCP connections. For example, the management device 110may utilize WS-Management based messaging to during management of thenetwork device 100 in instances where the network device 100 maycomprise Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) and/or ASFbased internal communications within the components of the networkdevice 100.

In an exemplary aspect of the invention, management operations relatedcommunications, such as OOB management operations related interactions,may be performed utilizing wireless connections. In this regard, thenetwork device 100 may utilize wireless links when exchanging managementrelated messages with the management device 102 via the managementconnection 122. Accordingly, in various embodiments of the invention,the network device 100 may be configured to, and/or its architecture maybe implemented and/or modified to support out-of-band (OOB) managementrelated communications over wireless connection. Furthermore, handlingof out-of-band (OOB) management related communications over wirelessconnection may be performed in the network device 100 independent ofhost environment, and/or operations thereof, in the network device 100,as described in more details in, for example, FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary network device thatsupports use of wireless communication during out-of-band (OOB)management, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Referringto FIG. 2, there is shown a network device 200.

The network device 200 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry,interfaces, and/or code that may enable reception, transmission, and/orprocessing of network traffic. The network device 200 may also beoperable to support participating in various networking relatedoperations, such as management operations for example. The networkdevice may comprise, for example, a network controller 202, a wirelessnetwork controller 204, a management controller 208, and a host 210.Exemplary network devices may comprise personal computers (PCs),laptops, servers, mainframes, network routers, bridges, and/or switches,and/or other similar communication devices. The network device 200 maycorrespond to, for example, the network device 100 of FIG. 1.

The network controller 202 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry,interfaces, and/or code that may handle network traffic, such as networktraffic 220, which may be received and/or transmitted by the networkdevice 200 via wired connections, based on wired based standards, suchas wired Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) based links. In this regard, the networkcontroller 202 may comprise a network interface controller (NIC) for usein conjunction with local area network (LAN) access.

The wireless network controller 204 may comprise suitable logic,circuitry, interfaces, and/or code that may handle wirelesscommunication of network traffic, such as wireless network traffic 222,which may be received and/or transmitted via wireless connections, usingone or more antennas 206. In this regard, the wireless networkcontroller 204 may enable reception and/or transmission of networkpackets by the network device 200 wirelessly, based on one or morewireless protocols, such as IEEE 802.11 (WLAN) based protocols.Accordingly, the network controller 202 may comprise a wireless networkinterface controller (WNIC) for use in conjunction with wireless localarea network (WLAN) access, which may be obtained via the WLAN accesspoint 230.

The management controller 208 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry,interfaces, and/or code that may be operable to perform and/or providemanagement operations and/or services in the network device 200, whichmay be based on one or more management protocols such as theWS-Management for example, and/or to support management relatedcommunications with other remote management entities, such as themanagement device 102. The management controller 204 may be integratedinto the network controller 202, with hardware and/or software (orfirmware) resources and/or components thereof being utilized inperforming various operations descried with respect to the managementcontroller 204. However, the invention need not be so limited.Accordingly, the management controller 204 may be implemented as aseparate and/or dedicated component in the network device 200. Themanagement controller 208 may be operable to process management traffic,which may be received and/or transmitted via the network controller 202for example, as part of the network traffic 220 during managementrelated exchanges with, for example, such as the management device 102.Furthermore, to facilitate and/or support management operationsperformed in and/or by the network device, the management controller 208may be operable to interact with other components and/or subsystems inthe network device 200, such as the host 210, and/or components thereof,to enable performing required configuration and/or control functions,and/or to obtain feedback and/or status information as needed to performsupported management operations and/or services.

The host 210 may correspond to a plurality of components and/orsubsystems in the network device 200, which may be utilized in runningand/or executing processes, tasks, and/or applications that may beprovided by and/or performed in the network device 200. In this regard,the host 210 may comprise one or more host processors 212, one or morememories 214, and/or additional components or resources such as a BasicInput/Output System (BIOS), and a plurality of dedicated hardware and/orfirmware components, such as, for example, one or more hard disk drives,one or more NVRAM elements, chipsets, sensors, video or graphicscontrollers (cards), audio controllers (cards). The host 210 may alsocomprise an operating system (OS) 218 a, and/or any applications and/orprocesses running therein. The OS 218 a may be run via the hostprocessor 212, for example. Furthermore, in instances when the networkdevice 200 is implemented as virtualization based platform, the host 210may comprise one or more virtual machines (VMs) 218 b and/or a virtualmachine monitor or hypervisor (VMM) 218 c.

In an exemplary aspect of the invention, a host environment,corresponding to the host 210 and/or various components thereof, whichmay run in the network device 200, may not be available in certainscenarios. For example, during power up sequences, certain code, whichmay be stored in read-only memory (ROM) in the host memory 214 forexample, may be executed when network device 200 is powered up and/orreset. Such code may be used to identify, test, and initialize (“bootup”) certain components of the network device 200. Therefore, prior tocompletion of system boot up, the network device 200 may have limitedfunctionality, and the host environment may not be running prior tocompletion of boot up, when the OS 218 a, the VMs 218 b, and/or the VMM218 c are not yet available (i.e. pre-OS). The host environment may alsobe unavailable in certain scenarios after the completion of system bootup, when the OS 218 a, the VMs 218 b, and/or the VMM 218 c becomeunavailable (i.e. post-OS), such as when errors occur causing OS or VMcrashes, and/or due to transitions to certain states, such as low powerstates (hibernate or sleep states) for example.

In operation, the network device 200 may receive, transmit, and/orprocess the network packets, via wired and/or wireless connections. Inthis regard, the network controller 202 may be operable to receive,transmit, and/or process network traffic 220, which may comprise networkpackets received and/or transmitted via one or more wired networkconnections, such as via wired Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) based connections.The wireless network controller 204 may be operable to handlecommunication of the wireless traffic 222. In this regard, wirelessnetwork controller 204 may be operable to receive, transmit, and/orprocess packets communicated wirelessly, using one or more antennas 206,over wireless connections, such as WLAN (IEEE 802.11) based connections,between the network device 200 and the WLAN access point 230 forexample.

Network packets, which may be communicated via the network controller202 and/or via the wireless network controller 204, may correspond tohost traffic, which may comprise wired host traffic 224 and/or wirelesshost traffic 226, respectively. In this regard, host traffic maycomprise data and/or messages transmitted and/or received by the host210, and/or applications or processes running therein. For example, thehost traffic 224 and/or 226 may comprise data transmitted and/orreceived by web browsing applications running in the network device 200.The communicated network packets may also correspond to managementtraffic. The management traffic may comprise data and/or messagestransmitted and/or received by the network device 200 during managementoperations, which may be handed by the management controller 208. Forexample, the management traffic may comprise WS-Management basedmessages communicated to and/or from the network device 200, to supportWS-Management services and/or applications performed therein.

The management controller 208 may be operable to perform managementoperations in the network device 200, and/or to receive, transmit,and/or process the management traffic. In this regard, the managementcontroller 208 may perform, control, and/or support management servicesand/or operations provided by and/or performed in the network device200, and/or may perform necessary interactions with remote managemententities, such as the management device 102 of FIG. 1, during thesemanagement operations and/or services. The management controller 208 maysupport in-band and/or out-of-band management operations. Duringmanagement related operations, the management controller 208 mayinteract with the host 210, and/or components thereof, to enablenecessary configuration and/or control operations based on receivedmanagement messages. The management controller 208 may also interactwith the host 210, and/or components thereof to query, log, and/or storedata pertaining to events and/or errors occurring therein, and/or todetermine conditions thereof. The interactions between the managementcontroller 208 and the host 210, and/or components thereof, may beperformed indirectly, via the network controller 202 for example.Alternatively, the management controller 208 may be operable to interactdirectly with the host 210, and/or components thereof, over existingand/or available internal communication subsystems, which may comprise aSystem Management Bus (SMBus) and/or Peripheral Component InterconnectExpress (PCI-E) based buses and/or interconnects within the networkdevice 200.

In an exemplary aspect of the invention, the management controller 208may support out-of-band (OOB) management operations, and/or may beoperable to implement OOB related features and/or may perform OOBrelated functions. As the complexity of platforms and enterpriseenvironments grows, the management of enterprise platforms is becomingincreasingly important. The manageability features are becoming platformfeatures and differentiators. Accordingly, platforms, such as thenetwork device 200 for example, may be managed in one or both of anin-band and/or out-of-band environments. In this regard, in in-bandmanagement environments, management operations may be performed with thesupport of hardware components that may be critical to and used by theoperating system by host environment, and/or components there of such asthe operating system running therein. In out-of-band (OOB) managementenvironment, management operations may be performed utilizing resourcesand components that may be run independent of the host environment, orthe operating system running therein. These resources, such as byutilizing the management controller 208, are dedicated to platformmanagement and may allow management of platform hardware componentsindependent of the availability of host environment running in themanaged systems. Accordingly, OOB management may enable remotediagnostics, repair, provisioning, and reimaging of managed system evenwhen host environments therein may not be available, due tounavailability of OS for example. Exemplary OOB management featuresand/or functions may comprise system inventory, system monitoring andcontrol, power control, boot control, user account management,indications, bios management, opaque management data, text consoleredirection, USB redirection, firmware updates, event logging, audit logfor management operations, and/or provisioning.

The system inventory feature may enable hardware and software inventoryof a system in the OOB environment. The inventory information mayinclude details of physical components, chassis, cards, processor, cacherepresentation and configuration, system memory representation, fanstatus and component representation, power supply status and componentrepresentation, and/or software or firmware version information. Thisinventory information may allow a remote management client to discovercapabilities of the system as well as the states of different systemcomponents. This information may be able to help in diagnosing andrepairing the system. The system monitoring and control feature mayallow a system to be monitored in the OOB environment by monitoring andcontrolling sensors status and information. The states of differentsystem components including the physical components may provide a way tomonitor and control the system.

The power control feature may allow a remote management console orclient to turn on, turn off or reset a system in the OOB environment.The power state changes that may be supported are based on how theplatform is configured for the remote power control. The power statechanges may be performed continuously and/or discretely. The power statechanges may allow a remote administrator to reboot the system, shutdownthe system, and/or turn on the system, for example. These power controlcapabilities may be used during the remote diagnosis and repair of thesystem. The boot control feature may allow the boot configurations ofthe system to be visible and modifiable by a remote client using the OOBenvironment. One or both of persistent and/or one-time bootconfigurations may be supported. The remote management client may useboot setting data for different boot configurations. The remote bootcontrol feature may be useful for reimaging and/or repairing the system.

The BIOS management feature may allow remote configuration and controlof the system BIOS, using the management controller 208 for example. Inthis regard, the management controller 208 may act as a cache of theBIOS settings and attributes. The BIOS attributes and settings may bevisible to the remote management client and the BIOS attribute changesmay be made programmatically. The opaque management data feature mayprovide a persistent nonvolatile memory space where the users orapplications may store information such as, software version numbers,asset tag, system ID, logs and/or software inventory. One or more ITtechnicians or administrators may use a remote management console or alocal software agent to upload the information in this memory to assistin software-asset inventories, application, OS migrations, and/orproblem resolution. The opaque management data feature may help tominimize the reliance on local software agents to store and retrievedata to help prevent accidental data loss. The access to the opaquemanagement data feature may be provided in both the OOB and in-bandenvironments. The firmware update feature may have the ability to updatefirmware using either in-band or OOB environment, and may allow amanagement console to update management firmware, boot code, and/orother network controller firmware components, for example. The firmwareupdate feature may allow an administrator or user to push patches orfixes to the firmware as well as update the firmware with new features,for example. The provisioning feature may allow a bare-metal system tobe provisioned as a managed system.

The user account management is a term that may be used to refer to themanageability of user accounts, for example. The user account managementfeature may provide one or more of the following aspects of accountmanagement: creating and/or deleting an account, changing the state ofan account, for example, disable, enable, enabled but offline, modifyinga user name, organization name, and/or password of an account, and/orassociating an account or identity with specific roles tied to specificprivileges, for example.

The indications feature may enable the communication of platform eventinformation to the remote client. The client may be operable to useindications for monitoring and/or diagnosing a system. One or both ofalert indications and/or lifecycle indications may be supported. Thealert indications feature may provide the information about the alertsand/or events that may be generated by the platform and the lifecycleindications may provide information about the lifecycle changes in themanaged elements. The service may use a push model to communicateindications to the client. The client may be operable to subscribeand/or unsubscribe to one or more sub-sets of indications.Notwithstanding, this feature may also work with other in-bandindication services running on the platform, for example. The eventlogging feature may provide a log of alert indications relatedinformation. This log may be read and cleared. The event logging featuremay allow an administrator to have visibility into the events thathappened inside the system, for example. The event logging feature mayenhance the ability to monitor and diagnose a system. The audit log formanagement operations feature may enhance the security of themanageability solution. By accessing an audit log of managementoperations, an auditor in an enterprise may be able to trace a set ofcritical management operations performed by a set of users. The auditlog for management operations feature may enable investigating maliciousattacks and security breaches within a system or an enterprise.

The text console redirection feature may have the ability to remotelymonitor and administrate a system without local keyboard, mouse, andvideo monitor for handling a scenario when the system fails to boot orOS fails to load. The text console redirection feature may allow theserial console I/O to be redirected to a remote management console. TheUSB redirection feature may have the ability to remotely boot a systemwhen the local disk is corrupted or the system fails to boot. TheUSB-redirected devices may appear as local USB devices to the systemfirmware and OS. But, the redirection of the control and/or data toand/or from the USB devices may be handled transparently. The USBredirection service may provide the service to the management console tocontrol the USB redirection sessions. The actual data transfer relatedto the USB redirection may be performed using a protocol, for example,HTTP.

The provisioning feature may also support the ability to re-provisionthe system in the case the system has been compromised or repurposed.The provisioning process may include discovery, management access point(MAP) configuration, management service set up or configuration, and/orcredential provisioning.

FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating exemplary handling of managementtraffic in a network device, which supports sideband communicationsbetween a management controller and a wireless network controller, whena host environment in the network device is available, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 3A, there isshown host 210, the wireless network controller 204, and the networkcontroller 202, which comprises the management controller 208, of thenetwork device 200.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3A, the network controller 202 maycomprise LAN physical layer/media access control layer (PHY/MAC)processing block 302, LAN-host interface 304, and LAN sideband interfacemodule 332. The wireless network controller 204 may comprise a WLANPHY/MAC processing block 312, a WLAN-host interface 314, and a WLANsideband interface module 334.

The LAN PHY/MAC processing block 302 may comprise suitable logic,circuitry, code, and/or interfaces for performing at least a portion ofPHY and/or MAC processing within the network controller 202 inaccordance with one or more types of supported wired connections. Inthis regard, the LAN PHY/MAC processing block 302 may be operable toperform physical transmission and/or reception of bit streams, which maycorrespond to transmitted and/or received network packets, via physical,wired based links based on one or more networking standards, such aswired Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) physical layer interface for example. TheLAN PHY/MAC processing block 302 may also be operable to perform MACprocessing, such as addressing and/or channel access management relatedoperations, which may be based on one or more specific networkconnectivity standards. For example, in instances where the networktraffic 202 may be transmitted and/or received via wired Ethernet (IEEE802.3) connections, the LAN PHY/MAC processing block 302 may perform MACoperations based on the Carrier Sense Multiple Access With CollisionDetection (CSMA/CD) protocol.

To support management related operations, the network controller 202 maycomprise a management filter 326, which may be incorporated into the LANPHY/MAC processing block 302 for example. In this regard, the managementfilter 326 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, code, and/orinterfaces that may enable examining network packets handled in thenetwork controller 202, to determine whether these packets comprisemanagement related messaging and/or data. In the case of inbound networkpackets, the management filter 326 may be operable to route thesepackets to the management controller 208 for further handling ofmanagement operations communicated in the management messages.

The LAN-host interface 304 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry, code,and/or interfaces that may enable interfacing and/or communicationbetween the network controller 202 and the host 210, or componentsthereof. The LAN-host interface 304 may support physical transfer ofdata between the network controller 202 and the host 210 utilizing oneor more existing and/or available inter-system buses and/orinterconnects. For example, the LAN-host interface 304 may support useof Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI-E) bus to communicatehost traffic 224 between the network controller 202 and the host 210.

The LAN sideband interface module 332 may comprise suitable logic,circuitry, code, and/or interfaces for supporting sideband interfacingand/or communication by the network controller 202. In this regard, thesideband interfacing may be utilized in communicating and/or interfacingwith other components, such as components that may not be part of thehost 210, in the network device 200, and/or may enable doing so inhost-independent manner, for example in instances where the OS (or VMs)running in the host 210 may not be available, such as in pre-OS orpost-OS scenarios. For example, the LAN sideband interface module 332may support establishing and/or configuring physical connectivity to thewireless network controller 204, and/or transfer of data and/ormessaging to and/or from the wireless network controller 204, based onone or more supported sideband interfaces and/or related protocols. Inthis regard, sideband communication and/or interactions between thenetwork controller 202 and the wireless network controller 204 may beperformed based on the network controller sideband interface (NC-SI)and/or Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO), to enable supportingmanagement related interactions for example.

The WLAN PHY/MAC processing block 312, a WLAN-host interface 314, and aWLAN sideband interface module 334 may be substantially similar to theLAN PHY/MAC processing block 302, a WLAN-host interface 304, and a LANsideband interface module 332, respectively. In this regard, the WLANPHY/MAC processing block 312 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry,code, and/or interfaces for performing at least a portion of PHY and/orMAC processing within the wireless network controller 204 in accordancewith one or more types of supported wireless protocols and/or standards,such as WLAN (IEEE 802.11). For example, the WLAN PHY/MAC processingblock 312 may be operable to perform wireless transmission and/orreception of bit streams, which may correspond to transmitted and/orreceived network packets, in the form of electromagnetic waves withinfrequency bands corresponding to supported and/or utilized wirelessinterfaces. The WLAN PHY/MAC processing block 312 may also be operableto perform at least a portion of MAC processing associated withsupported wireless interfaces. For example, WLAN PHY/MAC processingblock 312 may be operable to perform at least a portion of MACprocessing to enable WLAN based communications.

The WLAN-host interface 314 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry,code, and/or interfaces that may enable interfacing and/or communicationbetween the wireless network controller 204 and the host 210, orcomponents thereof, over one or more existing and/or availableinter-system buses and/or interconnects. For example, the WLAN-hostinterface 314 may support use of Peripheral Component InterconnectExpress (PCI-E) bus to communicate host traffic 226 between the wirelessnetwork controller 204 and the host 210.

The WLAN sideband interface module 334 may comprise suitable logic,circuitry, code, and/or interfaces for supporting sideband interfacingand/or communication by the wireless network controller 204,substantially as described with regard to the LAN sideband interfacemodule 332. In this regard, the WLAN sideband interface module 334 maysupport establishing and/or configuring physical connectivity to thenetwork controller 202, and/or transfer of data and/or messaging basedthereon, in accordance with one or more supported sideband interfacesand/or related protocols, such as the network controller sidebandinterface (NC-SI) and/or Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO).Accordingly, the WLAN sideband interface module 334 and the LAN sidebandinterface module 332 may be utilized collaboratively to enablesupporting management related interactions between the wireless networkcontroller 204 and the management controller 208.

In an exemplary aspect of the invention, the wireless network controller204 may be operable to directly handle certain functions pertaining tosupported wireless protocols. For example, the wireless networkcontroller 204 may comprise a WLAN functions module 320, which may beincorporated into the WLAN-host interface 314 for example, and may beoperable to perform and/or support various WLAN connection and/orsession establishment related functions directly, without requiringparticipation and/or control by the host 210 or components thereof.Exemplary functions that may be performed via the WLAN functions modules320 may comprise detecting access points (APs), communicating withdetected APs, authenticating discovered APs, negotiating connectionand/or session related parameters, and/or negotiating and/or settingproper access identifiers and security credentials.

In accordance with the embodiment shown in FIG. 3A, the host 210 maycomprise one or more device drivers, and/or related functions, which maybe utilized in operating and/or interacting with other components of thenetwork device 200, such as the network controller 202 and/or thewireless network controller 204. For example, the host 210 may compriseLAN driver 306 and WLAN driver 316, which may be utilized in operatingthe network controller 202 and the wireless network controller 204,respectively. The host 210 may also comprise host networking stack 310,which may be utilized to support networking related processing in thehost 210, such as handling various layer related processing based on themulti-layer OSI model. The LAN driver 306 may be operable to initialize,configure, control, and/or interact with the network controller 202. Inthis regard, the LAN driver 306 may enable forwarding to the networkcontroller 202 data that may be transmitted thereby in network packets,and/or may enable receiving data that may extracted by the networkdevice 200 from received network packets. The term ‘data’ may refer tothe actual data being communicated, and/or any additional headers and/orfooters pertaining to any encapsulation that is handled directly by thehost 210, and/or components or applications thereof. For example, ininstances where the network controller 202 handles only PHY and/or MACprocessing, the data may also comprise headers/footers pertaining toremaining layers in the seven-layer OSI model, which may be added (foroutbound packets) or removed (for inbound packets) utilizing the hostnetworking stack 310.

The WLAN driver 316 may be similar to the LAN driver 306, and may beoperable to initialize, configure, control, and/or interact with thewireless network controller 204 of the network device 200 for use ofwireless connections. In this regard, the WLAN driver 316 may enableforwarding to the wireless network controller 204 data that may betransmitted wirelessly thereby, via network packets, and/or may enablereceiving data that may extracted by the wireless network controller 204from received network packets.

In an exemplary aspect of the invention, the management controller 208may comprise a WLAN driver 322, which may be similar to the WLAN driver316. In this regard, the WLAN driver 322 may be operable to perform atleast a subset of function described with regard to the WLAN driver 316.The WLAN driver 322 may be utilized, for example, in instances where thehost 210, and thus the WLAN driver 316, may not be available.Furthermore, the WLAN driver 322 may be configured to support use byand/or functions of the management controller 208.

In operation, the network controller 202 and/or the wireless networkcontroller 204 may be enable reception and/or transmission of networkpackets communicated to and/or from the network device 200, and/or mayprovide at least a portion of handling and/or processing of the networkpackets. For example, the network controller 202 may be operable toreceive, transmit, and/or process network traffic 220, which maycomprise network packets received and/or transmitted via wired networkconnections, such as via wired Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) connections. Inthis regard, the LAN PHY/MAC processing block 302 may be operable toperform PHY and/or MAC related processing for received and/ortransmitted network packets. In the receive, or inbound path, once PHYand/or MAC processing is complete, the partially processed packets,which may comprise payload data and headers and/or footers pertaining toremaining layers may be forwarded (303) to the LAN-host interface 304.The LAN-host interface 304 may be operable to forward the data, and/orpartially processed packets, to the host 210 as part of host traffic224. In this regard, the LAN-host interface 304 may utilize directmemory access (DMA) transfer for placing and/or copying data and/orpartially processed packets into the host memory 214 of host 210, overPCI-E bus, for example. The host 210 may complete handling of thereceived packets, utilizing the LAN driver 306 and/or the hostnetworking stack 310 for example, by removing and/or processing headersand/or footers, and/or extracting payload data carried therein.Furthermore, the management filter 326 may enable determining if inboundpackets comprise management messaging, in which case the receivedpackets may be forwarded (305) to the management controller 208.

In the transmit, or outbound path, host 210 may forward data destinedfor transmission, directly or within partially constructed frames orpackets, such as for LAN transmission, to the LAN-host interface 304. Inthis regard, the host 210 may be operable to add, via the LAN driver 306and/or the host networking stack 310, headers and/or footers pertainingto higher layers (L3 or higher) and/or protocols related thereto, suchas TCP or UDP related headers for example, of the seven-layer OSI modelfor example. The LAN-host interface 304 may utilize DMA transfer forretrieving and/or copying the data and/or partially processed packetsfrom the host memory 214 of host 210, over PCI-E bus, for example. TheLAN-host interface 304 may forward the received data, or partialpackets, to the LAN PHY/MAC processing block 302, to enable performingPHY and/or MAC processing thereon to facilitate transmission ofcorresponding Ethernet packets. The management controller 208 may alsoforward outbound management messaging and/or data to the LAN PHY/MACprocessing block 302, which may perform necessary PHY and/or MACprocessing thereon to facilitate transmission of corresponding Ethernetpackets as part of the network traffic 220.

The wireless network controller 204 may be operable to receive,transmit, and/or process wireless network traffic 222, which maycomprise network packets received and/or transmitted wirelessly, via theantennas 206 for example, over one or more wireless interfaces, such asover WLAN (IEEE 802.11) based interfaces for example. In this regard,the WLAN PHY/MAC processing block 312 may be operable to perform PHYand/or MAC related processing for received and/or transmitted wirelessnetwork packets. While the MAC processing may be performed completelywithin the network controller 202, MAC layer functions and/or operationsare typically divided between the wireless network controller 204 andhost 210, wherein the WLAN driver 316 may be configured to provide atleast some MAC layer related functions and/or processing.

In the receive, or inbound path, after handling by the WLAN PHY/MACprocessing block 312, partially processed packets, which may comprisepayload data and headers and/or footers pertaining to remaining OSIlayers, may be forwarded (313) to the WLAN-host interface 314. TheWLAN-host interface 314 may then forwarded them to the host 210 as partof wireless host traffic 226. In this regard, the WLAN-host interface314 may utilize DMA transfers in placing and/or copying the data and/orpartially processed packets into the host memory 214 of host 210, overPCI-E bus, for example. The host 210 may then be operable to completehandling of received packets, via the WLAN driver 316 316 and/or thehost networking stack 310 for example, which may remove and/or processremaining headers and/or footers, and/or extracting payload data.Because MAC layer processing may not be complete until the receivedpackets are handled by the WLAN driver 316, determining whether receivedpackets comprise inbound management messaging and/or data may beperformed in the host 210, via the WLAN driver 316 for example. In thisregard, the WLAN driver 316 may comprise a management filter 328, whichmay be similar to the management filter 326. In this regard, themanagement filter 328 may be operable to examine received networkpackets forwarded from the wireless network controller 204, to determinewhether these packets comprise management related messaging and/or data.

In the transmit, or outbound path, the host 210 may forward to theWLAN-host interface 314 data that destined for WLAN transmission, and/orpartially constructed frames or packets comprising that data and someadditional information. In this regard, the host 210 may add, via theWLAN driver 316 and/or the host networking stack 310, headers and/orfooters pertaining to higher layers of the OSI model for example. TheWLAN driver 316 may also perform at least some of the MAC layer relatedfunctions and/or processing. The WLAN-host interface 314 may utilize DMAtransfers in retrieving and/or copying the data and/or partiallyprocessed packets from the host memory 214 of host 210, over PCI-E bus,for example. The WLAN-host interface 314 may forward the received data,or partial packets, to the WLAN PHY/MAC processing block 312, to enablePHY and/or MAC processing thereon to facilitate transmission ofcorresponding wireless (WLAN) packets.

In various embodiments of the invention, sideband communication betweenthe wireless network controller 204 and the network controller 202 maybe utilized to support wireless communication of management traffic,and/or performing or handling of management operations based thereon. Inthis regard, the management operations may pertain to variousout-of-band (OOB) management functions and/or features, substantially asdescribed with regard to FIG. 2 for example. Sideband communication maycomprise communication within a system, such as the network device 200,between components of the system, which may be utilized to supportand/or enable such operations as management operations. In this regard,sideband communication may be performed in accordance with one or moreparticular sideband interfaces and/or protocols, such as networkcontroller sideband interface (NC-SI) and/or Secure Digital Input Output(SDIO) for example. Sideband communications may typically be utilizedbetween management controllers, such as management controller 208 andother particular components, such as the network controller 202 ininstances where the management controller 208 may be implemented asseparate component external to the network device 202.

For inbound management traffic, the management filter 328 of the WLANdriver 316 may determines that received network packet comprisesmanagement traffic, such as OOB related management packet. The WLANdriver 316 may queue or buffer the network packet. The WLAN driver 316may then forward the received network packet to the wireless networkcontroller 204, particularly to the LAN sideband interface module 334of, over the host traffic 224, using DMA transfer for example. The WLANdriver 316 may also generate an interrupt to inform the managementcontroller 208 that a management packet was received. The managementcontroller 208 may request the management packet, using sidebandcommunication, and the management packet may be forwarded between thewireless network controller 204 and the network controller 202, usingsideband interface 330 for example, which may be established betweenand/or configured via the LAN sideband interface module 332 and WLANsideband interface module 334. The management packet may be forwarded(309) from LAN sideband interface module 332 to the managementcontroller 208, where it may be handled. In this regarding, handling thereceived management packet may comprise performing particular OOBmanagement functions based on the messages. The management controller208 may utilize (307) the LAN-host interface 304 to interact with thehost 210, to perform any required management related control and/orconfiguration operations and/or to obtain any requested events and/orlogs related information for example.

For outbound management traffic, the management controller 208 mayconstruct outbound management packet, which may respond to previouslyreceived management requests and/or may comprise management relatedinformation, such as events and/or logs related data. The managementcontroller 208 may forward (309) the constructed management packet tothe LAN sideband interface module 332. The constructed management packetmay then be forwarded to the wireless network controller 204, via thesideband interface 330 between the LAN sideband interface module 332 andWLAN sideband interface module 334 for example. The LAN sidebandinterface module 334 may forward the outbound management packet to thehost 210, via the LAN-host 314 for example, utilizing DMA transfers inplacing and/or copying the outbound management packet network packetinto host memory 214 for example. The LAN sideband interface module 334may also generate an interrupt to the WLAN driver 316 regarding presenceand/or readiness of the outbound management packet for transmittal. TheWLAN driver 316 may process the outbound management packet, addingnecessary headers and/or footers, for example, by utilizing the hostnetworking stack 310. The WLAN driver 316 may also be operable to mergeoutbound host and management traffic within the same network packet(s).The resultant network packet may be queued, and/or may subsequently beforwarded to the wireless network controller 204 for transmittal as partof the wireless network traffic 202.

FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating exemplary handling of managementtraffic in a network device, which supports sideband communicationsbetween a management controller and a wireless network controller, whena host environment in the network device is unavailable, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

In operation, the network device 200 may support handling of managementtraffic, and/or performing management operations related thereto, evenwhen host 210 may not be available. The management operations maypertain to various out-of-band (OOB) management functions and/orfeatures, substantially as described with regard to FIG. 2 for example.In this regard, the management controller 208 may be operable tointeract with, and/or control the wireless network controller 204independent of operations or availability of host 210. The host 210 maynot be available, and/or operations and/or functions thereof, includingthe WLAN driver 316 and/or the host networking stack 310 for example,may not run or execute under certain conditions, such as pre-OS orpost-OS scenarios.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, in pre-OS and/or post-OSscenarios, when host 210 may not be available, the management controller208 may replace the host 210 with respect to owning and/or controllingthe wireless network controller 204. In this regard, the managementcontroller 208 may utilize the sideband interface 330, setup and/orutilized via the LAN sideband interface module 332 and WLAN sidebandinterface module 334, to control, configure, and/or drive the wirelessnetwork controller 204. The WLAN driver 322 of the management controller208 may be utilized, for example, in driving the wireless networkcontroller 204, substantially as described with regard to WLAN driver316 of the host 210 for example. The wireless network controller 204 maybe configured to provide direct pass-through routing of network trafficto and/or from management controller 208, without necessitating anytraversing and/or routing via the host 210 or components thereof forexample. Accordingly, the wireless network controller 204 may beutilized for receiving and/or transmitting management traffic even whenthe host 210 may not be available. When the host 210 becomes available,ownership and/or controller of the wireless network controller 204 maybe handed off from the management controller 208 to the host 210. Inthis regard, the hand-off may be handled via the host 210, utilizingsoftware components therein for example; the management controller 208,via management firmware that may be running therein for example; bywireless network controller 204; and/or any combination thereof.

The wireless network controller 204 may be configured to filter receivednetwork traffic 222, to determine whether the received traffic comprisesmanagement traffic. Only such management traffic may then be forwardedto the management controller 208 via the sideband interface 330, withother types of traffic being simply dropped. Alternatively, the wirelessnetwork controller 204 may not perform any management traffic filtering.Rather, all traffic communicated via the wireless network controller 204may be handled by the management controller 208, with the sidebandinterface 330 being utilized to exchange data, including partiallyconstructed and/or processed network packets, and/or messages pertainingto the received and/or transmitted traffic. Furthermore, in someembodiments, the management controller 208, autonomously and/or inconjunction with other functions of the network controller 202 mayhandle at least some of the other, non-management traffic received viathe wireless network controller 202.

In an OS-absent receive path, after handling by the WLAN PHY/MACprocessing block 312, partially processed packets may be forwarded (315)to the WLAN sideband interface module 334. The wireless networkcontroller 204 may send an interrupt to the management controller 208,over the sideband interface 330, indicating that traffic has beenreceived. The management controller 208 may request, forwarding of thepacket between the wireless network controller 204 and the networkcontroller 202 via sideband interface 330 for example. The packet maythen be forwarded (309) from the LAN sideband interface module 332 tothe management controller 208, where it may be handled. In this regard,the management controller 208 may be operable to perform packetfiltering and may determine whether the packet comprises, for example,OOB management related messaging and/or information for example. Themanagement controller may be operable to process the packet.

In an OS-absent transmit path, the management controller 208 maygenerate outbound management message, which may respond to previouslyreceived management requests and/or may comprise management relatedinformation, such as events and/or logs related data. The managementcontroller 208 may also process the outbound management packet,utilizing the WLAN driver 322, to add, for example, necessary headersand/or footers in accordance with multi-layer OSI model basedtransmission. The management controller 208 may forward (309) theconstructed management packet to the LAN sideband interface module 332.The LAN sideband interface module 332 may then forward the managementpacket to the wireless network controller 204, specifically the WLANsideband interface module 334 thereof, utilizing the sideband interface330. The WLAN sideband interface module 334 may forward (315) thereceived packet to the WLAN PHY/MAC processing block 312, to enable PHYand/or MAC processing thereon to facilitate transmission ofcorresponding wireless (WLAN) packets.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary architecture for anetwork device that comprises a dedicated management controller, andwhich supports sideband communications between the management controllerand wireless network controller, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention. Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown a management controller400.

The management controller 400 may be similar to the managementcontroller 208, substantially as described with regard to FIGS. 2, 3A,and 3B. The management controller 400, however, may be implemented as aseparate dedicated component of the network device 200 rather than beingembedded and/or integrated into the network controller 202.

The management controller 400 may be operable to support use of sidebandcommunication in interacting with the network controller 202 and thewireless network controller 204. Accordingly, the management controller400 may comprise a Mgmt-LAN sideband interface module 402 and aMgmt-WLAN sideband interface module 404, which may be operable toestablishing sideband interfaces 422 and 424 with the network controller202 and the wireless network controller 204, respectively, and/orutilizing the sideband interfaces 422 and 424 for sidebandcommunication. In this regard, the sideband interfaces 422 and 424 maybe similar to the sideband interface 330, as described with regard toFIGS. 3A and 3B for example.

The management controller 400 may also comprise WLAN driver 406, whichmay be similar to the WLAN driver 322. In this regard, the WLAN driver406 may enable supporting operations of the management controller 400during host-assisted and/or host-independent handling of managementtraffic communicated via the wireless network controller 204,substantially as described with regard to WLAN driver 322 with respectto FIGS. 3A and 3B for example.

The management controller 400 may comprise Mgmt-host interface 408 maycomprise suitable logic, circuitry, code, and/or interfaces that mayenable interfacing and/or communication between the managementcontroller 400 and the host 210, and/or any components thereof. TheMgmt-host interface 408 may support physical transfer of data betweenthe management controller 400 and the host 210 utilizing one or moreexisting and/or available inter-system buses and/or interconnects. Forexample, the Mgmt-host interface 408 may support use of PeripheralComponent Interconnect Express (PCI-E) bus to communicatemanagement-host traffic 410 between the network controller 202 and thehost 210, which may comprise management related messages and/orinformation pertaining to, for example, various out-of-band (OOB)related functions, features, and/or operations.

The management controller 400 may support and/or enable handling ofwireless communication of management traffic, and/or performing orhandling of management operations based thereon, including out-of-band(OOB) management functions and/or features, substantially as describedwith regard to FIGS. 3A and 3B. In this regard, the sidebandcommunication between the management controller 400 and the wirelessnetwork controller 204 may be performed via sideband interface 424,which may be established between the Mgmt-WLAN sideband interface module404 and the WLAN sideband interface module 334.

Sideband communication may also be utilized during handling ofmanagement traffic communicated via wired connections, utilizing thenetwork controller 202, and/or when performing or handling managementoperations based thereon. In this regard, the sideband communicationbetween the management controller 400 and the network controller 202 maybe performed via sideband interface 424, which may be establishedbetween the Mgmt-WLAN sideband interface module 402 and the LAN sidebandinterface module 332.

FIG. 5A is a flow chart that illustrates exemplary steps correspondingto the receive path during host-assisted handling of management trafficin a network device that incorporates sideband communication betweenwireless controller and management controller, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 5A, there is shown a flowchart 500, comprising a plurality of exemplary steps that may beperformed in a network device, such as the network device 200.

In step 502, a WLAN controller, such as the WLAN controller 204 of thenetwork device, may receive a packet that may comprise managementtraffic. In step 504, the WLAN controller 204 may forward the packet,such as via DMA over PCI-E bus, to the host 210. In step 506, the hostWLAN driver 316 may perform packet filtering and detect the presence ofmanagement traffic. In step 508, the host WLAN driver 316 may trigger aninterrupt to the management controller 208, and may forward the packetinto the WLAN sideband interface module 334. In step 510, the managementcontroller 208 may get the packet using the sideband interface 330; andmay process the packet. In this regard, the management controller 208may perform one or more out-of-band (OOB) management operations and/orfunctions based on the management packet.

FIG. 5B is a flow chart that illustrates exemplary steps correspondingto the receive path during host-independent handling of managementtraffic in a network device that incorporates sideband communicationbetween wireless controller and management controller, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 5B, there isshown a flow chart 520, comprising a plurality of exemplary steps thatmay be performed in a network device, such as the network device 200.

In step 522, the WLAN controller 204 may receive packet that maycomprise management traffic. In step 524, the WLAN controller 204 maysend an interrupt to the management controller 208 over the sidebandinterface 330. In step 526, the management controller 208 may get thepacket from the WLAN controller 204 using sideband interface 330. Instep 528, the management controller 208 may perform packet filtering andmay determine whether the packet may comprise management traffic. Instep 530, the management controller 208 processes the packet. In thisregard, the management controller 208 may perform one or moreout-of-band (OOB) management operations and/or functions based on themanagement packet.

FIG. 5C is a flow chart that illustrates exemplary steps correspondingto the transmit path during host-assisted handling of management trafficin a network device that incorporates sideband communication betweenwireless controller and management controller, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 5C, there is shown a flowchart 540, comprising a plurality of exemplary steps that may beperformed in a network device, such as the network device 200.

In step 542, the management controller 208 may construct a managementpacket. In this regard, the management packet may be in response topreviously received management request and/or may comprise managementrelated information, such as events and/or logs data. In step 544, themanagement controller 208 may send the packet to the WLAN controller 204over the sideband interface 330. In step 546, the WLAN controller 204may trigger an interrupt to host WLAN driver 316, and may forward thepacket to the host 210, such as via DMA over PCI-E bus. In step 548, thehost WLAN driver 316 may process the packet, to added headers and/oradditional information for example, and may queue the packet fortransmission. In step 550, the WLAN controller 204 may forward thepacket to the WLAN controller 204, such as via DMA over PCI-E bus forexample, for transmission, such as via WLAN connection to the accesspoint 230.

FIG. 5D is a flow chart that illustrates exemplary steps correspondingto the transmit path during host-independent handling of managementtraffic in a network device that incorporates sideband communicationbetween wireless controller and management controller, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 5D, there isshown a flow chart 560, comprising a plurality of exemplary steps thatmay be performed in a network device, such as the network device 200.

In step 562, the management controller 208 may construct a managementpacket. In this regard, the management packet may be in response topreviously received management request and/or may comprise managementrelated information, such as events and/or logs data. Furthermore, themanagement controller 208 may be operable to perform, via the WLANdriver 322, at least a portion of required networking processing on thepacket, to added needed headers and/or additional information requiredfor multi-layer OSI model based transmission. In step 564, themanagement controller 208 may send the packet to the WLAN controller 204over the sideband interface 330. In step 566, the WLAN controller 204may transmit the packet wirelessly, such as via WLAN connection to theaccess point 230.

Various embodiments of the invention may comprise a method and systemfor sideband communication architecture for supporting manageabilityover wireless LAN (WLAN). In a network device 200, the managementcontroller 208 may handle management traffic communicated wirelessly viawireless network controller 204, and/or may perform and/or supportmanagement operations based on the handled wireless management traffic.The management controller 208 may be integrated into network controller202 in the network device 200. The management traffic may compriseout-of-band (OOB) management related traffic. The management controller208 may support and/or handle wireless communication (222) of themanagement traffic, and/or may perform the management operations basedthereon, independent of operations of the network device 200. A directinterface may be established between the management controller 208 andthe wireless network controller 204, to support direct sidebandcommunication between the management controller 208 and the wirelessnetwork controller 204. In this regard, at least a portion of thewireless management traffic may be communicated between the managementcontroller 208 and the wireless network controller 204 via the sidebandinterface 330. The sideband interface 330 may incorporate and/or supportNetwork controller 202 Sideband Interface (NC-SI) and/or Secure DigitalInput Output (SDIO) based interactions and/or communications.

The wireless traffic communicated via the wireless network controller204 may be routed via the host 210 in the network device 200 when thehost 210 is available. In this regard, routing via the host 210 maycomprise filtering inbound packets, via management filter 328, todetermine if they comprise management traffic, and forwarding inboundmanagement traffic received via the wireless network controller 204 backto the wireless network controller 204 for communication to themanagement controller 208. Outbound traffic may be forwarded to the host210 from the wireless network controller 204, for additional networkingrelated processing before being forwarded back to the wireless networkcontroller 204, which may then communicated the outbound trafficwirelessly via one or more wireless connections, such as WLANconnections. In instances when the host 210 in the network device 200may be unavailable, such as in pre-OS or post-OS scenarios, themanagement controller 208 may configure the wireless network controller204 to provide direct pass-through routing of communicated networktraffic to and/or from the management controller 208, via the sidebandinterface 330. The management controller 208 may control operations ofthe wireless network controller 204. In this regard, the WLAN driver 322of the management controller 208 may be utilized in driving and/orcontrolling operations of the wireless network controller 204, such asin instances when the host 210 may be unavailable and accordingly thehost WLAN driver 316 may not be running.

Other embodiments of the invention may provide a non-transitory computerreadable medium and/or storage medium, and/or a non-transitory machinereadable medium and/or storage medium, having stored thereon, a machinecode and/or a computer program having at least one code sectionexecutable by a machine and/or a computer, thereby causing the machineand/or computer to perform the steps as described herein for sidebandcommunication architecture for supporting manageability over wirelessLAN (WLAN).

Accordingly, the present invention may be realized in hardware,software, or a combination of hardware and software. The presentinvention may be realized in a centralized fashion in at least onecomputer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elementsare spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind ofcomputer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methodsdescribed herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware andsoftware may be a general-purpose computer system with a computerprogram that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computersystem such that it carries out the methods described herein.

The present invention may also be embedded in a computer programproduct, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation ofthe methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer systemis able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the presentcontext means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of aset of instructions intended to cause a system having an informationprocessing capability to perform a particular function either directlyor after either or both of the following: a) conversion to anotherlanguage, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different materialform.

While the present invention has been described with reference to certainembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention. In addition, manymodifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material tothe teachings of the present invention without departing from its scope.Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited tothe particular embodiment disclosed, but that the present invention willinclude all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

1. A method, comprising: handling by a management controller in anetwork device, management operations in said network device based onmanagement traffic communicated wirelessly via a wireless networkcontroller of said network devices, wherein said management controlleris operable to perform said management operations and/or to support saidwireless communication of said management traffic independent ofoperations of said network device.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein said management controller is integrated within a networkcontroller that handles wired based network traffic.
 3. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said management traffic comprisesout-of-band (OOB) management traffic.
 4. The method according to claim1, comprising establishing a direct interface between said managementcontroller and said wireless network controller.
 5. The method accordingto claim 4, comprising communicating at least a portion of saidmanagement traffic between said management controller and said wirelessnetwork controller via said direct interface.
 6. The method according toclaim 4, comprising establishing said direct interface based on NetworkController Sideband Interface (NC-SI) and/or Secure Digital Input Output(SDIO) interface.
 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein: at leasta portion of said management traffic is routed via a host subsystem insaid network device when said host subsystem is available; and saidrouting comprises forwarding inbound management traffic received viasaid wireless network controller back to said wireless networkcontroller for communication to said management controller.
 8. Themethod according to claim 1, comprising configuring said wirelessnetwork controller to provide direct pass-through routing ofcommunicated network traffic to and/or from said management controllerwhen a host subsystem in said network device is unavailable.
 9. Themethod according to claim 1, comprising controlling by said managementcontroller operations of said wireless network controller.
 10. Themethod according to claim 9, wherein said management controllercomprises a wireless network controller driver for use during saidcontrolling of operations of said wireless network controller.
 11. Asystem, comprising: one or more circuits for use in a managementcontroller of a network device, said one or more circuit being operableto handle management operations in said network device based onmanagement traffic communicated wirelessly via a wireless networkcontroller of said network devices, wherein said management controlleris operable to perform said management operations and/or to support saidwireless communication of said management traffic independent ofoperations of said network device.
 12. The system according to claim 11,wherein said management controller is integrated within a networkcontroller that handles wired based network traffic.
 13. The systemaccording to claim 11, wherein said management traffic comprisesout-of-band (OOB) management traffic.
 14. The system according to claim11, wherein said one or more circuits are operable to establish a directinterface between said management controller and said wireless networkcontroller.
 15. The system according to claim 14, wherein said one ormore circuits are operable to communicate at least a portion of saidmanagement traffic between said management controller and said wirelessnetwork controller via said direct interface.
 16. The system accordingto claim 14, wherein said one or more circuits are operable to establishsaid direct interface based on Network Controller Sideband Interface(NC-SI) and/or Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO) interface.
 17. Thesystem according to claim 11, wherein: at least a portion of saidmanagement traffic is routed via a host subsystem in said network devicewhen said host subsystem is available; and said routing comprisesforwarding inbound management traffic received via said wireless networkcontroller back to said wireless network controller for communication tosaid management controller.
 18. The system according to claim 11,wherein said one or more circuits are operable to configure saidwireless network controller to provide direct pass-through routing ofcommunicated network traffic to and/or from said management controllerwhen a host subsystem in said network device is unavailable.
 19. Thesystem according to claim 11, wherein said one or more circuits areoperable to control by said management controller operations of saidwireless network controller.
 20. The system according to claim 19,wherein said management controller comprises a wireless networkcontroller driver for use during said controlling of operations of saidwireless network controller.